Few issues with my quad.... Possible tear?

scottswald · Jul 3, 2015

I was wondering 2 things about my quad

Is it possible to tear a quad muscle without realising, I have got a dent in one of my quads and I certainly don't remember having a bad quad injury, you can see it on my left leg in the pic.

Second, it's very hard to desrcibe but has anyone got a line running through their teardrop muscle? Running from the inside going up slightly, I have it in both teardrops, it's more noticeable when I get a good pump in them, you can clearly feel it but I can't seem to get it to show well on a picture.

Sorry for the boring questions but research has led me nowhere

dorian123 · Jul 3, 2015

try getting an MRI done to be on the safe side

scottswald · Jul 3, 2015

Sorry to sound stupid but an Mri would detect a previous tear?

dorian123 · Jul 3, 2015

scottswald · Jul 3, 2015

Thanks mate, anyone got any experience with this?

scottswald · Jul 4, 2015

Anyone pleAse?

JW87 · Jul 4, 2015

scottswald said:
Second, it's very hard to desrcibe but has anyone got a line running through their teardrop muscle? Running from the inside going up slightly, I have it in both teardrops, it's more noticeable when I get a good pump in them, you can clearly feel it but I can't seem to get it to show well on a picture.

I think I know what you are talking about and I have same thing like diagonal ish ridge / line that shows but not really present when you flex, not sure if this is down to subq water retention or what. You aren't really lean enough in the quads to really see enough. I wouldn't worry about it and I doubt you tore part of your quad without realising.. its unlikely.

scottswald · Jul 4, 2015

Aye mate, well it causes no pain it just looks odd, I'm dieting so I should be able to get a better look at it when I'm leaner.

Part of me hopes sports massage will help it out too

Zomb131 · Jul 4, 2015

Highly unlikely you tore your quad without noticing. Muscle tears usually cause a sudden loss of strength, pain, and bruising. But I have heard of people tearing muscles, and not noticing till later on.

If you tore your vastus lateralis, you would not be able to properly extend and stabilize your knee.

No clue what you mean by a "line" in your vastus medialis.

MR. BMJ · Jul 5, 2015

I had the same thing happen to my left quad EXACTLY like you have. I this past summer I noticed it, almost like the quad one day decided to shrink and go missing. I never hurt myself, nor ever had any pain in my quads until I noticed. Up until then, it was always there!

The only 2 things I can think of outside of a tear is:

1) Scar tissue? I always liked to shoot my quads more than anywhere (upper quad though, not lower like where is missing).

2) Hit a nerve somewhere and it effected the area.

On another note, about 2-3 months prior, I strained my lower back really bad doing heavy squats. Every time I moved, even while sleeping, it was painful as fukkk. I'm not sure if somehow that injury somehow or in some way jacked up my quad through some kind of neural damage...???

Maybe somebody can lend some thoughts on this?

wizim · Jul 5, 2015

i tore my left quad (all 4 muscles) a couple of years ago. you can see a deformation in the muscle where the severe tear was. you would know if you tore it. an mri will do nothing but cost you money and confirm a tear. they dont repair muscle to muscle tears.

my wife and i were involved in an atv accident this winter. the handle of the 4 wheeler hit her in the quad. it left a huge bruise and now she has a dent in her leg at the site. weird.

BigTex · Jul 5, 2015

Zomb131 said:
Highly unlikely you tore your quad without noticing. Muscle tears usually cause a sudden loss of strength, pain, and bruising. But I have heard of people tearing muscles, and not noticing till later on.

If you tore your vastus lateralis, you would not be able to properly extend and stabilize your knee.

It does appear that the quad vastus lateralis on the left (your left) connects much higher than the right leg. However, this would have to mean that it tore enough to detach. I detached a bicep, vastus lateralis, intermedius and medialis, I can assure you that all three were painful. I could not stand with the vasti torn and the bicep when I tore that was not only painful but it swelled and bruised from the shoulder to the hand.

I agree with Zomb, you would have definitely noticed the swelling, pain and loss of strength. Not to mention you would have trouble extending the leg and walking with any stability.

Floxedone · Jul 6, 2015

DUDE! MRI's are not all "side effect free". there are ALL kinds of reports of many issues.

IF you didn't feel pain then it can't be serious UNLESS you can nueropathy that limits pain signalling.

You may have imbalances, lack of symmetry, then there is also the things like dermal adhesions and muscle-to-muscle adhesions that can distort the look and "tonality" of muscles.

MRI's also cost many THOUSANDS of dollars. No pain is a GOOD thing.

E.J. · Jul 7, 2015

I have the same line in my right tear drop. Only noticeable when I flex. Not the left. However my left quad in general is damaged and looks different from the right as a result of s small tear three years ago. It's also much smaller than the right now as a result. But I had massive swelling and knew I did it at the time. Odd that u don't recall injuring it or have swelling or bruising. IMO u can hardly tell there u have asymmetry between the two unless u really look for it. That may change as u drop bf and u lean out. Have to wait and see

DORIAN* · Jul 10, 2015

It's hard to tell. You may have slightly damaged it in the past without really noticing. It could be a nerve issue. If you don't feel any pain or discomfort you should be fine. But I would be careful when training quads just to be safe. I would also avoid any injections in your quads. Deep tissue massage would be good for you.

jewels13 · Jul 10, 2015

Do you have the same strength in both legs??

scottswald · Jul 10, 2015

Thanks for the advice guys, yeah I have the same strength. They've been like this for a few years and trained hard with no problems.

Funny thing actually after my last two ab sessions I have been getting a few electric shock feelings in that area in my quad when taking steps.

I once got a bad infection from jabbing my quad (much higher up though) and it went bright red and swelled up massively and was in hospital on Iv antibiotics for 4 days - maybe that damaged a nerve

HimRoid · Jul 10, 2015

scottswald said:
Thanks for the advice guys, yeah I have the same strength. They've been like this for a few years and trained hard with no problems.

Funny thing actually after my last two ab sessions I have been getting a few electric shock feelings in that area in my quad when taking steps.

I once got a bad infection from jabbing my quad (much higher up though) and it went bright red and swelled up massively and was in hospital on Iv antibiotics for 4 days - maybe that damaged a nerve

The ab workouts most likely caused swelling that presses against nerves causing that feeling. Inflammation can be a pain in the butt.